Triggered by their most first-half points of the season, the Denver Pioneers raced to their third consecutive victory and evened their record at 5-5 on Tuesday night at Magness Arena.
Spearheaded by deadly 3-point shooting, DU raced to a convincing 90-62 victory over the Belmont Bruins of Nashville, Tenn., a team that has been to the NCAA Tournament the last three years.
But the Bruins (8-4) couldn’t match DU’s firepower, and the Pioneers finished with their highest-scoring game this season.
The Pioneers hit 12-of-23 3-pointers, with Marcus Byrd leading the way by going 3-of-5 off the bench.
Belmont, meanwhile, struggled, hitting just 4-of-19 3-pointers.
Four Pioneers finished in double figures, led by Chris Udofia’s 21 points and Brett Olson’s 19.
DU scored 37 points off 20 Belmont turnovers and shot 55.6 percent from the field.
Ahead 28-24 with 5:25 left in the first half, DU outscored Belmont 17-6 to take a 45-30 halftime lead.
Belmont twice cut the lead to 10 in the second half, but DU never had less than a double-digit lead.
The Pioneers host UC Irvine on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296, imoss@denverpost.com or
